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The Spy Who Loved Me

Synopsis

It's the BIGGEST. It's the BEST. It's BOND. And B-E-Y-O-N-D.

Russian and British submarines with nuclear missiles on board both vanish from sight without a trace. England and Russia both blame each other as James Bond tries to solve the riddle of the disappearing ships. But the KGB also has an agent on the case.

I'm really glad that me and Jonnie White agreed that films caught on the telly don't count towards any projects (I don't do projects, obviously) or challenges that are going on. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to rewatch the Best Bond Film Ever™.

If you ever need proof for the theory that the Bond movies work as time capsules, transforming the formula to fit the tastes of the time, you need look no further than The Spy Who Loved Me. It screams late 70's the same way the tacky special effects of the Brosnan Bonds scream late 90's. The cinematography is dark and stylized, imitating the neo-noir aesthetic of directors like Alan Pakula (The Parallax View). The soundtrack is a blend of funky slide guitar and early synth, marking the height of disco's popularity. There's even an undefeatable character…

Now and with this rewatch my Bond journey finally comes to an end. The Spy Who Loved Me slightly improved in this second viewing, the first two thirds is still pretty charming and adventurous, but like the first time around the movie loses some of its established momentum in the final third, the action is too big, too long and at times the predictability makes it quite boring. But despite that it is definitely the best and most tolerable of Roger Moore films, the story starts pretty well, the character of Anya Asamova is one of the strengths of the film (and like the first time Barbara Bach continues to…

A surprisingly entertaining mid-period Bond film, which is the 10th proper Bond film, and the third starring Roger Moore.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this, especially given the execrable Man With the Golden Gun, and the mediocre Live and Let Die. It contains fun set pieces, a solid story based on public's fear of nuclear disaster that was at its height during the late '70s/early '80s, just the right mix of humor, decent gadget/vehicle use, and JAWS!

The Spy Who Loved Me was the first James Bond film that really caught my imagination as a kid - and my first viewing of it in over a decade shows most of the reasons why.

This was Roger Moore's third Bond outing and by now he was completely comfortable and identifiable as 007 - but in a strange twist, this film sees the series moving back into slightly more serious territory and does away with much of the knockabout comedy of The Man With The Golden Gun, and is an improvement over that still underrated instalment in many different ways.

Its main improvement is regarding its main Bond girl. After poor Britt Eklund was royally crapped on for the…

Cubby Broccoli deserves some recognition for having guts. Now the sole producer of the franchise he would receive all the blame if the next film failed. Even though The Man with the Golden Gun underperformed at the box office, Broccoli still doubles the budget for The Spy Who Loved Me making it the most expensive Bond Film up to date making it an even bigger risk rather then just keeping the budget at a modest level.

The Spy Who Loved me is possibly Moore's best Bond movie, and boasting a song that is possibly at the same level of Live and Let Die you can't help but like this movie. With a yes absurd plot, it is fun and has all the elements Bond had in those days and includes all what we expect from Bond as well, plus we see some of the most memorable things from the Bond film series. I felt this film was safely a Good film and below is why I felt that about it.

The story is as I say an absurd plot and if you watch this you will see what I mean. A villain to match Blofeld, the…

Typically upheld as one of Moore's better ventures--indeed, often upheld as the best of Moore's films--but, for me, The Spy Who Loved Me is a rather flat, creaky affair bloated with uninteresting sequences.

There are brief flickers of inspiration (the sequence at the Pyramids is the kind of sequence one always wants to see in a Bond film), but, in general, the pacing is all wrong (the interminable tanker sequence pretty much sinks the film, though the previous material has been a bit hit-or-miss). Both You Only Live Twice and Moonraker are better Bond films in the "epic" mode.

The Spy Who Loved Me is probably my favourite of the Moore generation. Many suggest it’s a remake of You Only Live Twice, and whilst is does share many similar plot elements, there is a lot to distinguish it as its own adventure. This film is also loaded with iconic imagery now synonymous with the Bond franchise, such as the Union Jack parachute, the gadget-laden Lotus Esprit and the metal teeth of henchman Jaws.

The webbed-fingered Karl Stromberg (Curd Jürgens) is an interesting villain with an elaborate scheme to start a nuclear war, creating an underwater civilisation in the aftermath. He’s not a hands-on villain, he has his henchmen to do his dirty work, but he is the mastermind behind…

As a kid, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was THE Bond movie. It was the first James Bond movie I saw in a movie theater, and it appeared to me epic, clever, and all-together awesome. Watching THE SPY WHO LOVED ME TODAY is a whole different story...

After the low returns on 1974's THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, and the dissolution of the Albert Broccoli-Harry Saltzman producing partnership, as well as lawsuit or two, Broccoli choose to revitalize the 007 franchise by bringing back Lewis Gilbert (who directed 1967's YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE), as well as legendary James Bond designer Ken Adam, in addition to Bond veteran screenwriter Richard Maibaum, who, along with Christopher Wood, adapted Ian Fleming's "The…

I have always regarded The Spy Who Loved Me as one of my favourite Bond films and it still holds up. Thankfully in this film we have a strong and capable Bond girl in Barbara Bach's XXX, who is a very welcome addition after the incompetence of Britt Ekland's character in The Man With The Golden Gun. In addition, this film also features one of the all time great Bond henchmen in Jaws. I love that guy. It is unfortunate that Richard Kiel died not too long ago. I'll always remember him for this. And I think he's the only henchman to appear in two Bond films, as he is in Moonraker.

My review -- this film is now on DVD and yes it does have a big profit margin of roughly $172 million [keeping in mind the budget was only $14 million.] The basic storyline is this the audience relatively quickly understand [first scene of the film that is how quick] that this submarine with a well-rounded arsenal is stolen and sometime later a second one is stolen, so it is up to M.I.6 [British intelligence] and the K.G.B [Russian intelligence] to pull their resources and work together to find these two submarines. Well I was thinking it would be much easier and quicker to just bring up the one element which I found quite irritating for the majority of the…